We recently had a chance to speak with Michael Jantz who runs the Avant Archive label out in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over the past year, Jantz has honed a very distinctive and instantly recognizable visual aesthetic for the label, while building up a catalog with an impressive range of sounds. In addition to his work with Avant Archive, Jantz has also been an active player within underground tape trader circles for several years now, having put out numerous releases of his own as Black Eagle Child on such reputable labels as Stunned, Digitalis, Housecraft, and many others. We aired our recent phone conversation with Michael on this week's show, where we discussed his work with both Avant Archive and as Black Eagle Child, and we played several tracks from each respective discography.

Friday, August 26, 2011

You'll notice that the Free Form Freakout site has been given a much-needed makeover thanks to the multi-talented Frank Ouellette of Hobo Cult Records, Hobo Cubes, Moduli TV, and countless other mind-expanding projects. To mark the occasion, we're going to be printing up a limited number of t-shirts with the new FFF design on it. Please get in touch with us if this is something you may fancy, just so we have a rough estimate of how many to do. All the profits from the sales of these t-shirts will be given to Frank for lending his time and talent to this project, and to help support his own future projects.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Dinosaur Jr. "Little Fury Things" from You're Living All Over MeBill Orcutt "Bored With the Moon" from 2011 Tour Only 7" (Jaggar cover)Son House "Pearline" from Father of the Delta Blues: The Complete 1965 SessionsTerrors "God Bless the Child (take 3)" from Lagan QordOlivia Tremor Control "Love Athena" from Presents: Singles and BeyondBrian Eno "By This River" from Before and After ScienceLow "Something's Turning Over" from C'MonFrancoise Hardy "Comment te dire Adieu" from Comment te dire AdieuThe Jayhawks "The Liquor Store Came First" from The Bunkhouse AlbumGorillaz "Revolving Doors" from The FallJeff Bridges "Hold On You" from Crazy Heart O.S.T.John Doe & The Sadies "I Still Miss Someone" from Country ClubBig Star "September Gurls" (live) from Columbia: Live at Missouri UniversitySonic Youth "Anti-Orgasm" from The EternalJohn Lee Hooker "Huckle Up Baby" from Very Best of ...
(Outro Music: Lonnie Mack "Memphis")

Bill Orcutt, along with Paul Metzger and Jesse Petersen, will be performing this Saturday at the Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis:

First, I'd like to begin by acknowledging the passing of Conrad Schnitzler this past week. While I'll openly admit to only scratching the surface of his vast discography, it goes without saying that his seminal work in Kluster and Tangerine Dream, along with his numerous solo and collaborative efforts, casts a fairly sizable shadow over several generations worth of experimental music, including the current wave of post-Noise/neo-Kosmische artists. Plenty has already been written elsewhere about Schnitzler, so I'll simply conclude with a statement he made about his work in a David Keenan-penned feature in The Wire from 2006 (which the above photo is taken from): "It is pure sound that I make. And I'm not expressing myself in any way when I'm making it. If anything, I express myself more when I listen back to it, when I go upstairs and listen to it and have one hour of joy." Thankfully, Schnitzler left us with countless hours of joy to experience for ourselves.

Some highlights from this week's show include another brilliant track from Panabrite. Norm Chambers continues his winning streak of upward bound synth explorations on Omni Center, his recent release on Sturmundrugs, finding new and inventive ways to meld his electronic and organic sound creations. Goaty Tapes and Cabin Floor Esoterica also just dropped some impressive new sounds in their latest tape batches. Amongst the Goaty heap, the Banana Head / Phantom Payn split has been getting repeated spins here in the FFF bunker. I was a little surprised to see this pairing at first, but it makes perfect sense really. The Phantom Payn material, which was recorded around the same time in the mid-Nineties as the excellent Days/Daze release that De Stijl put out last year, fits quite nicely alongside the contemporary loner psych pop moves of Banana Head. I'm quite pleased, in fact, that Goaty had the foresight to present the Phantom Payn's work within the current DIY underground context where it rightly belongs. Along with being some of the most visually stunning tapes I've seen of late, the recent Cabin Floor Esoterica batch also delivers the goods musically. The otherworldly wandering blues of Keijo's Along the Stream hits just the right Jandekian sweet spot for me, albeit in a more tuneful way, and Serfs' blown-out guitar playing on Sha La La-La Later Onis rather beautiful, turning a Curtis Mayfield cover into something totally new and original. But, since I've mentioned originality, I must bring up the latest Super Minerals tape as well. The duo of Phil French and William Giacchi continue to make some of the most mind-bendingly original sounds around and with The Hoax, and now Contacteer, they've released two of my favorite albums of the year thus far. Lastly, we spun the brand new Horse Marriage single, which marks Avant Archive's first foray into releasing vinyl. In the coming weeks, we will be joined by Avant Archive owner/operator, Michael Jantz, where we will be discussing the label and his own musical endeavors as Black Eagle Child. Do check back.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Flower Travellin' Band "Satori Part I" from SatoriRussell Hoke "Morning Medicine" from Til I'm the Best I Can BeTurner Cody "Up Up High" from Buds of MayAlvarius B. "Face to Face With A Couple Axes" from Baroque PrimitivaTelevision Personalities "Painting By Numbers" from Part-Time Punks: The Very Best of . . . Lee Noble "Evil Book" from Creeping Death FeverBibio "K Is For Kelson" from Mind BokehThe Pheromoans "Stubble Brothers" from S/TThe Seeds "Pushin' Too Hard" from NuggetsWeezer "El Sorcho" from PinkertonWanda Jackson "You Know I'm No Good" from The Party Ain't OverJustin Townes Earles "Can't Hardly Wait" from Midnight At The MoviesBig Audio Dynamite "The Bottom Line" from Planet Bad - Greatest HitsThe Rockford Mules "Drag the Swamp" from Ma They Broke MeTom Jones "It's Not Unusual" (Note: Carl's Guilty Pleasure Pick)The Stranglers "Peaches" from Peaches: The Very Best of . . .